I'm a Libertarian living in Humboldt County, CA. I've lived here in Eureka since 1973 and joined the Libertarian Party in 1992. This blog will mostly focus on local political issues, but I may stray into state and national issues as well, when I can't help myself. Please post your comments by clicking on the "comments" link at the bottom of each post. Although I do moderate comments, you need not be a registered user to post them.

Wednesday, July 19, 2006

The Race Begins

It will be interesting to see who ends up filing papers for the Eureka City Council positions, the filing period having begun Monday. Most of interest to me is whether we'll see a clear left vs. right split.

With Planning Commission dude, Ron Kuhnel, having announced his intention to go up against Jeff Leonard, will the other candidates be Kerriganites as well? I suspect so, and think the central issue will be the Balloon Tract/ Marina Center controversy.

Also of interest in elections news, and something I'm personally glad to hear, two proposed local initiatives failed to gather enough signatures in time to get on the ballot for the November election:

The Preserve Our Waterfront group failed to get their signatures for the intitiative requiring voter approval of any zoning changes to the Balloon Tract, and the one to establish a civilian police review committee didn't make it either.

While I'm somewhat indifferent to both of the initiatives in question, I feel it's fair to say both were somewhat left wing oriented initiatives. I figured we were going to be inundated with attacks from the Left, the Left smelling at least a little blood after their Gallegos and Measure T victories. I figured they'd keep the momentum going.

With the two initiatives failing, I have to wonder if maybe the left doesn't have the momentum I thought they had, or maybe they're just taking a break? There's still some time for them to get enough signatures for a special election. Only time will tell if they have the energy to keep their ball rolling.

37 Comments:

Right v. Left? The (in)famous Goldwater Republican John Dean says he hasn't changed, but these days he finds himself left of center. May I suggest a different terminology for Eureka politics? How about The Aristocracy v. The People? The Withs v. the Withouts? Speculators v. Workers? Arklones v. Glassites?

Special elections can cost more than they are likely worth, but city council races should be won by majority vote, which sometimes means a runoff. Too bad ex-Mayor Flemming had the rules changed to this current plurality, winner-take-all minority rule system. I guess it must have suited her needs at the time.

I hope to be as respectful as possible and say that even though those two petitions had some good points- neither had significant enough support from any part of the local political spectrum, including what you say is the "left".

thats right, theres plenty of support in this community for police review after the cops blew away cheri moore. but wait, michael smith doesnt give a damn about that, so long as he can continue to attack greg allen.

I was referred to your blog since there was discussion of our initiative. Here is the current status as released to the press yesterday.

Very good blog by the way.

Jim Ferguson

*****

After careful discussion and review of the status of the proposed development of the Balloon Tract, specifically in light of recent changes to the project put forward by Security National and the subsequent delays in the overall process, Preserve Our Waterfront has decided to suspend collection of signatures on the Eureka Waterfront Approval Initiative - at this time. While the group is still concerned that the voters and citizens of Eureka have a say on this matter, they feel the circumstances have changed enough in the months since the late March filing that the people of Eureka will have the de facto ability to make their voices heard on this issue come November, with three City Council members and the Mayor up for re-election.

As of this date, some 573 verified signatures have been collected towards the approximately 1,500 required. And while Preserve Our Waterfront feels they would be able to collect the additional signatures needed before the deadline of late September; this would force the city to hold a special election in January 2007 costing $30,000 to $40,000, something the group was not comfortable with.

Preserve Our Waterfront has never taken a position either for or against the Marina Center proposal but was formed to give the people and voters of Eureka a say in the development of the last significant vacant parcel of their waterfront. We want to thank all those who signed the petition and the volunteers who gathered those signatures.

Q & A with Jim Ferguson

You’ve stopped collecting signatures “at this time”.

The group believes in the proposed initiative and feels it can always restart the process next year, depending how things play out over the coming months.

There were probably an additional thousand people who would have signed and who supported our initiative but did not live within city limits. And while we welcomed this support, this is ultimately a decision to be made by the voters of Eureka, not outsiders.

Did the recent “wetlands” modification of the proposed Marina Center project have any impact on signature gathering?

From talking to Eureka residents and voters, we found two things. One, they do not view the Marina Center project with the same distaste they viewed the Wal-mart proposal. They also feel that Security National is being responsive to peoples concerns and that while this proposal may not be perfect, it is a trade off they are willing to consider if it cleans up this blighted eyesore.

Salman could not control Jim Ferguson, so Salzman did everyrthing possible to undermine the petitioning effort-- even though it would have supported a public process and bascially helped Salman's (er, I mean CREG's) position.

anon 12:50,please specifically state what exactly Salzman did to undermine the effort.Didn't JIm Ferguson give a little presentation at a CREG meeting?I also saw a save our waterfront table at a CREG forum.Never saw one at the co-op,or Arts Alive,or anywhere in town for that matter.If you don't trust him then why rely on his help?With your opinions of him as they are,wouldn't it be smarter to stay away from CREG and gather signatures and support from a different avenue?I support this initiative,but I live in the first district so my signature would be invalid.Feel free to dislike Salzman as some obviously do,but don't blame him or GREG for failures to obtain signatures and support.

After careful discussion and review of the status of the proposed development of the Balloon Track, specifically in light of recent changes to the project put forward by Security National and the subsequent delays in the overall process, Preserve Our Waterfront has decided to suspend collection of signatures on the Eureka Waterfront Approval Initiative — at this time. While the group is still concerned that the voters and citizens of Eureka have a say on this matter, they feel the circumstances have changed enough in the months since the late March filing that the people of Eureka will have the de facto ability to make their voices heard on this issue come November, with three City Council members and the mayor up for re-election.

As of this date, some 573 verified signatures have been collected toward the approximately 1,500 required. And while Preserve Our Waterfront feels they would be able to collect the additional signatures needed before the deadline of late September, this would force the city to hold a special election in January 2007 costing $30,000 to $40,000, something the group was not comfortable with.

Preserve Our Waterfront has never taken a position either for or against the Marina Center proposal, but was formed to give the people and voters of Eureka a say in the development of the last significant vacant parcel of their Waterfront. We want to thank all those who signed the petition and the volunteers who gathered those signatures.

Hmm,CREG is nowhere to be heard except for on my television.I gaurantee you that this whole 10-12 acre wetland proposal wouldn't have come to light without CREG's persistance.Security National's refusal to bring the change to a vote,shows that even they know that the majority of citizens in Eureka would vote it down.Believe me,if they(Arkley in specific) truly thought they had a majority support,they would bring it to a vote just to shove it in the oppositions faces.But that's why they're putting out postcards,to see just much support they may have.

I don't know that you can say that. I'd be leery of hoping for voter support for anything. People, Californians in particular, can be quite fickle on how they vote and the result of a vote could change depending on whether it was held a day earlier or later.

I wouldn't want to chance anything I didn't have to on how people might vote on it.

Also, seems to me Security National has said from the get- go they wanted to hear from the community for ideas on the balloon tract.

CREG could stop right now and they know they have had a good effect, no matter what ends up on the Balloon Track. Now why don't more people run for city council and really make some change for the better?